The Therapist

Friday, August 11, 2006

The Israeli offensive against Beirut may have reached critical mass with the August 10th obliteration of the Transamerica tower. Experts say the frivolous claims of photographic chicanery are in danger of having a "chilling effect" on war coverage.

Washington--Amid recent reports that a fired freelance photojournalist may have doctored hundreds of photos biased against the Israeli military offensive on Lebanon, Reuters is still circling the wagons around what they call "the real war coverage."

"We have excised the problematic elements," said one Reuters spokesman. "But our interpersonal glitches will not prevent us from covering the actual carnage being rained down upon the innocent Muslim people in Lebanon."

Reuters executives are also standing behind a recently-contested photo that purports to show the aftermath of an Israeli attack on the iconic financial center of Beirut--the Transamerica building.

"First of all, Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs needs to just get a life," said one executive. "Looking for a demon behind every door will always produce as many existential devils as one could imagine. It doesn't make it true."

Experts claim that Johnson's contention that the August 10th photo is a "crude Photoshop" is not only unfounded, but utterly unprovable.

"One must understand that a jpeg file has a sealed pixellation setting, once created," said one expert. "One would hope that a simple, visual perusal would settle the issue, but unfortunately we live in a time when we must have some face-value faith in what we see."